Welcome to this week's Chutes & Ladders, our roundup of hirings, firings and retirings throughout the industry. Please send the good word—or the bad—from your shop to Kyle Blankenship, and we will feature it here at the end of each week.
Pfizer, Mylan vets tapped for Viatris board, C-suite as merger nears
Viatris
Upjohn CFO Sanjeev Narula will join the new merger alongside nine new board members.
Viatris has fleshed out its 13-member board of directors with the appointments of current Pfizer board member W. Don Cornwell as well as eight current Mylan directors: JoEllen Lyons Dillon, Neil Dimick, Melina Higgins, Harry A. Korman, Rajiv Malik, Richard A. Mark, Mark W. Parrish and Pauline van der Meer Mohr. Malik currently serves as Mylan's president and will keep that role at Viatris, Pfizer said. Pfizer also announced that Narula would move to Viatris in the same role, bringing 16 years of experience at Pfizer with him. Narula previously served as VP of finance for Pfizer’s Essential Health Business and has held financial and operational leadership roles at American Express and Xerox, Pfizer said. FiercePharma
Spark's CMO set to leave as post-Roche takeover exits continue
Spark Therapeutics
CMO Kathy Reape has stepped down.
Reape is one of the senior Spark staffers hitting the exit in the aftermath of Roche’s $4.3 billion takeover. Kathy High, Spark’s co-founder and R&D head, is the highest-profile person to depart the biotech in the wake of Roche’s takeover, but FierceBiotech has learned she is not the only person to decide their future lies elsewhere. Perhaps most notably, Reape is set to follow High out of the door. “We can confirm that Kathy Reape, M.D., has made us aware that her time with Spark Therapeutics is coming to an end and we can confirm she is leaving the company. Dr. Reape has been a valuable member of Spark in her time with the company and leaves behind a skilled team of professionals who will continue advancing our important work for patients and families,” a spokesperson for Roche said. FierceBiotech
Eloxx cuts staff, CEO and shakes up leadership team
Eloxx
CEO Rob Ward is out amid a leadership shakeup.
Eloxx said 13 staffers will be axed to help save cash for the biotech until next year. It didn’t specify where all the cuts were from but did say it would “reduce managerial layers and consolidate roles across the organization.” Most are from the biotech’s leadership team. Ex-Medicines Company exec Gregory Williams, Ph.D., has now been lifted into the top spot from being chief operating officer while Neil Belloff becomes the new COO (from EVP, general counsel and corporate secretary) and Tomer Kariv, its CMO, is in as chairman. Out the door is Ward, who had been chair and CEO and came from a long line of biopharmas including AstraZeneca, Merck, Pfizer and Genentech. Following him is the biotech’s CFO and CBO. FierceBiotech
> San Diego-based Halozyme Therapeutics has named Elaine Sun as senior VP and chief financial officer, effective March 2. Sun will succeed Laurie Stelzer, who resigned "to pursue another opportunity." Sun most recently served as CFO and chief strategy officer at SutroVax and previously worked as managing director and head of West Coast healthcare for Evercore Partners and managing director at Merrill Lynch.
> Pittsburgh-based Krystal Biotech will welcome Kathryn Romano as chief accounting officer and say goodbye to CFO Tony Riley. Romano was most recently corporate controller at CNX Resources Corporation and previously served as corporate controller of Rice Energy.
> British Columbia-based Aurinia Pharmaceuticals has named Max Colao as chief commercial officer. Aurinia will also flesh out its senior management team with the appointments of: Chris Hays as VP of marketing, Fran Lynch as VP of sales, Cara Felish as VP of commercial operations and Tim Hermes as VP of market access. Release
> Redwood City, California-based Adverum Biotechnologies has promoted Angela Thedinga to chief technology officer. Thedinga joined Adverum in August 2019 as the company’s VP of program management and strategy. Release
> Philadelphia-based Panorama Medicine has named Jae Lee, Ph.D., as executive VP of research and preclinical development. Lee joins Panorama from Kintai Therapeutics, where he was a VP of preclinical development. Prior to that, Lee served as the VP of drug discovery sciences at Boehringer Ingelheim. Release
> San Diego-based Epirium Bio has tapped Cristina Ghenoiu, Ph.D., as senior VP of R&D operations and new product planning. Ghenoiu most recently served as a senior investment professional at Longitude Capital.
> Menlo Park, California-based Alydia Health has named Edward Evantash, Ph.D., as CMO. Evantash most recently served as medical director and VP of global medical affairs at Hologic.
> Procter & Gamble has named Paul Gama as president of the company's personal health care division, effective April 1. Gama joined P&G in early 2017 and previously worked with Reckitt Benckiser, where he was global category director for nutritionals for four years.